Lawsy

woohoo, we seem to have a result..

new rad arrived today, £80 off the bay, fitted this evening and just been out for about 50 mile round trip, new thermostat also in, temp guage stayed just under half the whole way - looks liek its sorted now!!

old rad was in a right state, most of it crumbled up as i pulled it out..

happy days, now to have some fun

thermostat is fine, bis viscous fan is spinning, little eletric ones work

got to the bottom of it tho, the rad is goosed

had a good look through the plastic front fan and there is no fins left on the rad, so stripped back a bit further and its only working around the edge..

new rad ordered and will report back once fitted...

nope..

its now holding pressure ok - but still getting very very hot..

I need to have the heaters on hot when driving to get the temperature down

its taken best part of 10 litres so far..

migth retry burping it again, I guess thats running engine, get it hot, cap off tank and heaters on full blast hot for a while

just done a 40 miel round trip, light traffic, mostly a-b roads, country twisties and she's still getting hot, temp guage was sitting fine for most of the journey, then it started creeping up, eventually peeking just shy of red, so a quick blast of the heaters on HOT and the temp guage drops within 5 mins back to just above half

any ideas???

All your water problems vanished now ?

Malc

Hopefuly Malc

my driveway is gravel so had a nightmare getting it up on the ramps.. last night managed a full coolant flush.

what suprised me tho, the previous owner must have paid a garage (or did it himself) to doa flush, but they must have forgotten to drain the flush and refill with coolant - i'm pretty certain it was running with pure water and a flush as it was very frothy and pretty much clear..

anyway, i did a flush, then another water through flush and then put int ht e correct coolant and distilled water mix..

insurance docs have arrived now so i can go and get him taxed and then take for a good run out today and see if the troubles are sorted..

new rad cap on too

interesting - I've just picked up my LS400 and it does the same, i thought i was going mad - good to hear its happened before so I'm not mad!!

be interested to hear if your work stops it over time too..

thanks

Steve

just been and fetched 2x5ltrs red coolant and 2x5lts distilled water from the local motor factors along with some coolant flush and a new rad cap...

hopefuly that'll sort it out, just need to find some time to do it all now!!

Today I'm working, over the road is a motor factors, so wil be going over to purchase rad cap and coolant/distilled water

had a good read through of the full coolant flush thread too.. sounds good and well worded, so hope it'll go ok.

popped off the fill bolt by the thermostat and noticed the coolant was frothy, it also smelt a little more liek screenwash than antifreeze/coolant, so i'm guessing if the muppet i purchased from topped up with screenwash instead of coolant.. :tsktsk: :tsktsk:

So hoping new coolant, rad cap should sort, do you think its worth popping in a new thermostat whilst I'm at it?

Cheers again

Steve

To be fair, my wife has had her Vauxhall for 7 years without any problems. If you look on this forum it seems the most common posts are from IS owners, not surprising as they are the most common Lexus. I can travel 200 miles and see loads but rarely do I see an LS.

thats the same anywhere - on the Passat forum there are loads of issues with the latest model, but I've ha dno issues with mine

seems all the issues on here for the Ls seem to be coolant related - its what mine is...

Hope its an easy fix

mmm interetsing..

I've had 15 years of being a very loyal VW owner, and never had any real issues..

i bought a Toyota about 6 months ago and keep having to spend out on it, bought my LS400 a few days ago and its giving me grief already..

but i must say, what a car so far, second only to a friends Audi S8 for smoothness - just hope i can get it sorted with little hassle

Hi, my coolant level now and on the J reg car was pink. The J reg might be a clue as to age related pressure cap issues !

What age / mileage is your LS 400 by the way ?

My replacement pressure cap came off the shelf at a normal motor factor that stocked Toyota bits.

Malc

cheers Malc, yup its also 91 J plate...

I'll grab a rad cap tomorrow form the motor factors, guess I'll need a gallon of distilled water and some coolant then - will get them to look up what's recommended for the car..

is it a big job to fully flush

sorry for all the questions, I've been a VW man for the last upmteen years..

thanks again

Thanks for the info, i have the same issue with on the hilux with the rad cap, seems toyota build cracking cars, but there coolant systems let them down..

fingers crossed it'll be just that, looks teh same spec as the one on the hilux so guess i'll try that in there till one arrives..

any advice on the coolant - i've read up a bit on here and it says that the red with distilled water seems best option, but just want to make sure all's ok first before doing a full system flush.. never enough in the expansion tank to see what colour coolant is currently in there, from the leaks it looks more blue/green than red/pink..

if i top up with blue and distilled till i find the issue do you think it'll be ok, or should i do a full drain and go red??

thanks again

steve

Evening all

picked up my LS400 earlier this week and have been enjoying driving it, covered a few hndred miles already, but i seem to be having overheating issues...

Read up loads on here already and all sound similar, air in system/thermostat/system cap issues

quick overview of sympton, temp guage gets hot, starts going up towards the red..

coolant is dripping from the tube under the cap and onto the floor, but its throwing out too much and is then almost empty when cold...

My question i have..

by the reservoir it says use 1 of.(product code).. and 4 (another code) - ten says DO NOT USE WATER

so would i be right in thinking i should only use those part numbers or is it ok using normal coolant and mixing with water?

i also have a hilux and they seem to have issues with rad caps that release the prssure too early, so I'm thinking if i change the rad cap, drain the coolant and change the thermostat all will (hopefuly) be ok..

what i'm struggling to find is a manual etc for the LS400.. so any tips for how too or even a link to a how too would be great

final question, lots of people say burp the system, how is that done?

thanks in advance from a complete newbie to toyota/lexus worl

Hi all

just picked up a 'low mileage' 91 plate LS400 and want to get to know more about it, what makes it tick etc etc..

My names Steve, but everyone knows e as Lawsy or 'big man'

and this is my new to me LS400

2 owners form new, just clicked 101k

My wife loves to name all our vehicles, normally these come from the number plate - LTR gives us Luther...

and then it reminded me of Superman, so meet Lex Luther

the bonnet needs a lick of paint

only slight laquer peel

and a clean engine bay.

its got a heavily rusted front wing..

only other issue i have so far is that if sitting in traffic/heavy driving seems to get hot, then leaks from i think the expansion tank, then gets hot fairly quick, so i'm going to have a read about and see whats what - might have some good questions for you all soon....

thanks

Steve